Sentinel
by lawless priest
Summary: .... just give me a minute and I'll think of something funny to say... ok maybe not. This is an AU story, but then again just about every peice of fanfiction in the world is an AU story, but whatever right? 4th impact is over and a new chapter begins in t


AN: .... just give me a minute and I'll think of something funny to say... ok maybe not. This is an AU story, but then again just about every peice of fanfiction in the world is an AU story, but whatever right? 4th impact is over and a new chapter begins in the world of EVA. /AN

/Sentinel/

- lawless priest -

01: a choice

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It was over.

Finally. All of it. I wouldn't have believed it if I hadn't been at the center of it myself. The Angel War had finally run its course and the world was free of celestial interference. But truthfully, I didn't care. I didn't care at all.

Sitting on a rock, my red hair dripping wet with the yellow substance, watching the blood red waves crash onto the beach I could only think of the irony of the whole thing. Instrumentality. My teachers used to tell me that history always repeats itself, but I couldn't get this. How? How could anyone fail to see that repeating this, this horror called instrumentality, the worst crime ever conceived, let alone committed, could possibly be, in any way, worthwhile.

Instrumentality.

Ha! It was just like father always said. Before me was an ocean of LCL, the primal soup that all human beings came from. It covered the horizon and the desolation that was what was left of the world.

I remembered father telling me stories about Third Impact and how the world had been nearly completely destroyed, leaving the bloody oceans the only lasting article surrounding the once proud cities of the world.

Now, like the those oceans I was the only thing, the only living thing left on this rock. Me, a failure, left as the last human on earth. I didn't get it. I didn't get it at all. I used to play in that water, that Angels blood, when I was a kid, never knowing what it was. Running around and splashing in the stuff as if it was a normal thing. I didn't know why mother used to have fits about me playing on that beach. It was just a beach, just like so many others, except that their waters weren't red.

I was a fool.

It was like dancing on someone's grave, only it was the grave of a people who had refused reality in favor of a blissful lie.

Looking up into the sky that was slowly being consumed by that red ribbon as it ate away what purity this world had left, I couldn't help but notice the two foreign objects invading the heavens that refused to play by the rules of gravity. Lilith's eggs, the black moons. Two testaments to humanity and its cousins the Angel's greatest folly.

I figured that I should be happy in the fact that it was over, truly. But of course I wasn't. How could I be? I was the last. The last anything. No more angels, no more humans. Everyone and everything was trapped in that last egg. The combined population of earth and all of Heaven and Hell's minions that had the luckless fortune to be stuck on this rock when it all came down, were now trapped within the black moon.

The same moon that was used to plug the hole leading back to the heavens. Even if the Angels found their way back from Liliths's embrace, they would never be able to go back home.

"Arrogant and envious, they came to wipe us out, saying that we weren't good enough for heaven's gates, yet now they themselves could never see its grace again. And for my incompetence I get to spend my last days alone in the world that I destroyed. A fitting punishment, don't you think?"

"Maybe, expect for that second part of course."

I hadn't even realized I had spoken out loud until someone had answered my question. And when I figured out that the voice that I had heard wasn't some figment of my imagination did I realized that I wasn't alone. I think that this whole scene would have scared the crap out of me before, but that was a long time ago and I was another person back then.

I figured it was too early for anyone to be coming back from the ocean and besides I would have seen them. There was really only one thing stopping me form bothering to turn around. Truthfully, I could've given a damn. Having the privilege of watching my world burn before my eyes had done a number on my social skills.

"And what makes you so sure I'm wrong?"

"Because you're not the first to end up in this particular situation and if you really wanted the world destroyed, you'd have already done it and you and I wouldn't be having this conversation, now would we?"

I said nothing, not because I didn't have an answer, as I said before, I didn't care to answer him. But apparently that didn't stop him.

"Your mission was to stop fourth impact, and now you feel that you have failed."

"You talk as if I haven't. Maybe the bloody ocean crashing in front of us or the desolation of the surrounding cities isn't as apparent to you as it is to me, it seems?" Who was this guy? Was he blind or something. Of course I failed, there's nothing left. It's all just a bunch of ruins.

"People will return you know. Eventually they will see that world for want it is and come back to the true reality."

"Whatever. What's the point of coming back if there's nothing left?"

"You act as if you've never heard of rebuilding. People will make a new start, reconstructing their lives and creating new ones. Your parents were proof enough for that."

'My parents?'

"And what would you know about my parents! Who are you to tell me anything?" I said, yelling at the irritating fool behind me as I turned to face him. Who was he to tell me anything?

"Do you miss them?"

"What?" His words throw me off. I was still pissed off at the other stupid comment to really get a handle on the next. "Of course I miss them, they were my parents!"

"I'm sure there are many out there that would miss theirs if their world were taken from them like this. It would be a shame to let them have to deal with that type of grief, don't you think?"

"Where are you going with this?"

I think that it was then that I actually took notice of the man in front of me that was giving me grief and interrupting my peaceful damnation. He wasn't really tall, probably around my height, 5'5 with dark shaggy black bands that were almost blue, which reminded me of my own mop of fiery red hair, courtesy of my mother's heritage. He wore what looked to be some kind of uniform made up of a pair of dark black pants and a black military cut bomber jack with red and silver trim. The thin blue tinted shades he wore only added to his already mysterious aura.

"What if I were to offer you a chance to... redeem yourself, in a sense, for your believed transgressions? Would you take me up on that offer?"

"It depends."

"On what?"

"Can it restore my world to what it used to be before the war?"

"No, no one can change time. All I can offer is that you can help make sure that something like this never happens again to anybody else."

I laughed, "You're a bit late," I said, pointing toward the second Black Moon. "I've already done that."

He just smiled. "What makes you so sure that your move worked. There are ways to get around even that."

I said nothing, merely looking at this man. It worked. I knew it did. Heaven was closed off. There was no way the Angels could ever come back. I still haven't figured out how he was there in the first place and his word games were really starting to piss me off.

"Who are you and why are you here?" It was time to get to the bottom of all this.

He smiled again. "I guess we never did get introduced. My name's Jin."

"Like the bottle?"

"Yes, one of my favorite brew at that, but with a J. And you are ?"

"Kyo, Kyo Ikari."

Jin stood up and handed me his hand. "Kyo Ikari, nice to meet you. You can just call me Ayanami. It'll make things a lot easier in the long run."

I eyed his had a quick second before shaking it. Long run, easier? Whatever. I did however take notice that he used the Ayanami name though. That wasn't a name that you just through around, but of course neither was Ikari.

"And the second part?"

"Strait to the point, I see. Alright. I work for an organization known as Sentinel. Our job is to go out and investigate alternate worlds and if necessary, assist them if certain political or other worldly issues and the like, get out of hand."

"So, what are you saying, that you're an alien come to save the world."

"Something like that. Except you're as much an alien as I am."

"Whatever. Well if that's the case I'd like to file a complaint. You fuckers are a few years late."

"I can see that we need to get a few things strait. First it doesn't work that way. Usually command will tell one of its Exploratory forces that they've found a new universe and then they'll send a scout team to check it out. Once that's done, they send the info back the HQ and the committee decides how things will progress. Basically whether our intervention is required or if any political avenues should be opened between us and them."

That was a large load of crap and I told him so. He smiled that annoying smile again. His expressions gave me the impression that he had heard all of this before. Who knew, maybe he had. It didn't mean I bought any of this though.

"So, tell me. What decision has your committee made on concerning my planet yet?"

"None. They don't even know you exist."

"So what the hell are you doing here for?"

For a brief moment this Jin, looked a bit sheepish.

"Well, lets just say that's a story for another day."

"Pssh, whatever."

"You've still not answered my question."

"You've still not given me a reason to."

"Fine, how about this. There are many worlds right?"

"You're asking me?"

"No, telling you, anyway... so there are many worlds, well for each of those worlds there is a heaven for each, but even those heavens have there own, a... master heaven if you will."

"That's just stupid. Why would there need to be more than one heaven? What, the Angels couldn't handle all of the billion humans?"

"Try an infinite amount. And besides, there are only so many Angels. Just like alternate worlds, where any one person can exist in many different worlds yet still be unique, Angels can do the same."

"So, what you're saying is that, somewhere, my father is still fighting the Angel war except that there maybe only one Evat o pilot?"

"Or no Evas or Angels for that matter. Hell, there are worlds where there are Evas and no Angels or Angels and no Evas."

"That would suck."

"Yes it would. They would have no way to defend themselves or maybe they would but it would have nothing to do with Evas. The possibilities are endless."

"So why are you going to other peoples worlds, then?"

"Because think about your own world. Think about the Angles and how they returned, think about your father fighting for a cause that he was not sure he even should have been fighting. There are people out there who need help. People who either can't do what needs to be done or just never got the chance."

We were quiet for a while. Neither wanting to break the silence. Both deep in our own thoughts, remembering or pasts. I couldn't save my own world so how could I save someone else's.

"Why are you here?"

"To recruit you."

"Why?"

"Because... your an Ikari."

"Is that the only reason?"

"No, it's because I know how it feels to watch your world die and not be able to do something about it. I don't want anyone to ever have to go through what I have. You, you are like me. You're an Ikari. You know what it means to have the world on your shoulders."

Blood red waves lapped against the shores of a white beach in a desolate land while two black moons holding the fate of a species bore witness to one man's choice and an answer that changed his destiny.


End file.
